Absolutely devoted to music and musicians
Musician
AMUSICIAN almost all his life, Calder Prescott was a fixture in Dunedin jazz bands but his impact was broader and his influence spanned several generations.
He began playing professionally from the early 1950s and was a jazz tutor at Dunedin’s Logan Park High School for 32 years, inspiring young musicians to hone their hobby or pursue music as a career.
He played piano in a quartet, tutored musicians at home, wrote arrangements during evenings and founded and led the Dunedin City Jazz Orchestra from 1988.
Prescott was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002 for services to music.
He died on January 23, aged 88, and Lesley, his wife of more than six decades, died on April 29, aged 82.
One of their daughters, Nicola Booth, described the pair as soulmates. ‘‘Dad’s world revolved around Mum and music.’’
May 12 would have been their 64th wedding anniversary.
Prescott’s love for music was well known but he also enjoyed science fiction — Star Trek, Dr Who and Flash Gordon.
Eldest son Mark Prescott said he grew to appreciate his father’s dry wit and selflessness.
He composed tunes for each of his children.
Prescott and Lou McConnell hosted Otago Access Radio shows and were known as the Gentlemen of Jazz. Prescott’s weekly show was My Kind of Jazz.
McConnell said Prescott was a big band specialist and it was his first love.
‘‘His last big band concert was only a few weeks before he died.’’
He had trips overseas and played with English couple Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine.
Calder Robert Prescott was born on May 31, 1931. He was raised by his mother and attended High St Primary School and boarded at Waitaki Boys’ High School in Oamaru.
He was a student at the University of Otago, joined the postal service in Dunedin in 1954 and transferred to its engineers’ office two years later. He became a supervisor in data processing at the
Wellington Post Office in 1965. He worked for Allied Computer Processors from 1966 till 1985. Mr and Mrs Prescott took over Dunedin’s Nero Restaurant but sold it in 1990.
An extensive article by Nick Bollinger for Audio Culture records that Prescott discovered jazz at primary school through Arthur “Turntable” Pearce’s Friday night Rhythm On Record radio show.
He was encouraged to learn piano as a child but his grandmother was less comfortable about jazz and its reputation for being ‘‘the devil’s music’’, he said in 2001.
‘‘But then I started playing in a radio band and she thought, ‘Well, it can’t be all that bad if he’s playing on national radio’.’’
He played trumpet in his high school band and defied rules to listen to jazz on the radio after 10pm. After leaving school, he got work at Joe Brown’s Saturday Night Dances.
He was mentored by Julian Lee, a blind Dunedinborn multiinstrumentalist. Prescott was tasked with writing out parts from the arrangements.
Prescott was in various bands over the decades. The Calder Prescott Jazz Quartet played on Thursdays in Dunedin’s Robbie Burns Pub from 1997 and he was often recognised in town by students and former students.
Logan Park High School head of music John Dodd, who worked with Mr Prescott from 1992, said getting across the spirit behind pieces of music was one of his strengths.
‘‘He was demanding and he was exact.
‘‘Calder knew how to interpret the lines, how to articulate them.
‘‘For young musicians, he really taught the music so that it felt right.’’
Mr Dodd said he believed that, under Prescott’s leadership, Logan Park had the first high school jazz band in New Zealand. Year after year, competition judges would comment on the accuracy of the school bands’ articulation, he said.
Mr Dodd said Mrs Prescott shared her husband’s devotion to jazz: ‘‘She seemed to be at every gig he did. They were quite a team.’’
Mr Dodd said the couple ran summer camps for youth jazz musicians at Alexandra. Mrs Prescott cooked and her husband provided music tuition. Mr Dodd joined them as manager for trips away. The school used to send bands to the Southern Jam, part of the Marlborough 4 Fun event.
Former students spoke of his impact.
Melissa Sydney, now a music teacher in Melbourne, said Prescott ‘‘spoke jazz like a language’’.
‘‘He could take a collection of scraggly teenagers and transform them into an internationally recognised big band with his patient and commanding manner, tireless dedication and hard work.’’
Saxophonist and educator Damon Grant joined the Logan Park High School jazz band in 1985, his fifth form year, and went on to become a professional musician. He recalled recording a cassette with the Logan Park band in 1986 and playing for various events, Prince Edward and touring Australia.
‘‘Calder’s enthusiasm was infectious. I felt responsible to bring my top game to every rehearsal and performance.
‘‘He was very specific about how we phrased, swung and played dynamics. But alongside this was a great sense that this music should be fun.’’
Associate Prof Michael Norris, Victoria University’s New Zealand School of Music composition and sonic arts programme director, said he had showed no great aptitude for music at school.
‘‘However, there was a buzz around the jazz band at school ...
‘‘I quickly took to playing the saxophone and Calder encouraged me at every step.’’
Prof Norris said Prescott encouraged him to try solo improvisations.
‘‘A large part of my musical training was formed in that band. The high point of my time at Logan Park High School was a trip with the jazz band to a musical festival in Sydney, where we performed on the stage of the Sydney Opera House.
‘‘His warmth, generosity, knowledge and his deep love of music rubbed off on everyone who took part in his bands. I, along with many musicians who grew up in Dunedin, owe much to him.’’
Calder and Lesley Prescott are survived by their children Linda, Mark and Nicola, and predeceased by Jeremy, and they had seven grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren.
— Grant Miller